No False Advertising in Amazon Appstore Name

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) – Apple failed to present enough evidence to support its false advertising claim against Amazon for the use of the Appstore term, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said that Apple failed to show any false statement from the giant online retailer, and it also did not show any proof that Amazon’s use of the name Amazon Appstore misled consumers. In its original complaint, filed in March 2011, Apple alleged that the Amazon Appstore name violated its App Store trademark. It later amended the complaint to include the false advertising allegations. Hamilton ruled Wednesday only on Amazon’s request to dismiss the false advertising claim. The trademark portion of the case will continue at trial scheduled for August. Apple failed to persuade the court that Amazon’s use of the name Appstore deceptively caused consumers to believe that Amazon’s service would have the same characteristics and qualities as Apple’s App Store. “The mere use of ‘Appstore’ by Amazon to designate a site for viewing and downloading/purchasing apps cannot be construed as a representation that the nature, characteristics, or quality of the Amazon Appstore is the same as that of the Apple App Store,” Hamilton wrote. “Apple has pointed to no advertisement by Amazon that qualifies as a false statement.” Apple also argued that the term misleads consumers into thinking Amazon’s Appstore offers just as many apps as Apple’s App Store. Hamilton, however, said that “there is no evidence that a consumer who accesses the Amazon Appstore would expect that it would be identical to the Apple App Store, particularly given that the Apple App Store sells apps solely for Apple devices, while the Amazon Appstore sells apps solely for Android and Kindle devices.”